Maintaining the privacy of your personal information is of the utmost important to the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC). This online privacy policy describes how ICMEC collects and maintains all personally identifiable information that is obtained through this website: www.icmec.org. The purpose of this privacy policy is to explain how we will use any information we obtain from this website, as well as the practices and procedures we have implemented to protect your personal information. Please be aware that www.icmec.org sponsors, advertisers, or websites that have links on our website may collect personally identifiable information about you on their websites. The information and privacy practices of those organizations are not covered by this policy.

We encourage you to read this privacy policy to gain a better understanding of how your personal information will be treated as you navigate ICMEC’s website. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about this privacy policy or our data collection practices, or if you would like to request that we delete your personal information from our records, you can call us at +1 703 837 6313, or send us your questions or comments via e-mail to information@icmec.org, or via postal mail to: Webmaster, International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children, 1700 Diagonal Road, Suite 625, Alexandria, VA 22314, USA.

Information We Collect
You have several opportunities to submit your personally identifiable information on the ICMEC website, including your name, postal address, e-mail address, telephone number, and payment information. The purpose of collecting such information is to respond to specific questions; to honor requests for brochures, newsletters, or other publications; to provide users with information about missing or exploited children; or to process payments and donations made online. We may use your personal information to periodically communicate with you concerning ICMEC issues.

We automatically collect Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and domain names of the originating visitor’s computer, in order to track the number and frequency of hits we receive per page. We may also identify the source of an external website link that brought you to www.icmec.org. This helps us to evaluate what websites or other content are prompting users to visit ICMEC’s website. We do not, however, associate individual IP addresses with any personally identifiable information in our databases, unless we detect a security intrusion or other unlawful activity on our website.

Information We Share With Third Parties
In cases where a visitor to our website makes a report about a missing or exploited child and, in doing so, submits personally identifiable information, we forward such information to appropriate law enforcement agencies for investigation.

When you submit credit card information to us, we immediately forward that information to a service that charges your account. We do not save or store your credit card number, although we do retain your name and address and may use that information to communicate with you in the future.

From time to time, we supply to third-party vendors personal information about visitors who wish to receive information from us. Such vendors may include, for example, organizations that process mailings for us. Those vendors have entered non-disclosure agreements with us so that personal information is used only to respond to the visitors’ requests and is not shared with any other entity or individual. Occasionally we will share “aggregate information” about our visitors with certain third parties. Aggregate information shows visitor activity as a whole but does not identify any individual user. For example, we may post a survey to which visitors can elect to respond. We might share the results of that survey with interested third parties, or we may use the information to improve our services and/or our website.

Except as described in this section, we will not sell, rent, share, or otherwise disclose your personal information to any party for any reason.

Cookies
Cookies are small text files that are sent to your browser from a web server and are stored on your computer’s hard drive. When you return to that website, the cookie will tell the website that you have been there before. The website can then offer you products or ads that are tailored to your interests. By using cookies, information may be collected without your express knowledge. ICMEC does not use cookies to track your use of our website, although we employ cookies to make your search of our missing children posters more efficient. Refusal to accept cookies will not prevent the use of ICMEC’s website, but some portions of our website may not function properly without cookies.

Security
The voluntarily submitted data that we collect from you is stored on a secure, password-protected server located in the United States. Only authorized personnel have access to this information. ICMEC uses procedural and technical safeguards to protect your personal information against loss or theft, including industry-standard encryption technologies. ICMEC uses a third-party intermediary to process your online donations and payments. Your credit card information is encrypted when submitted to this processor and is transmitted over a secure connection using Secure Socket Layers (SSL) to ensure protection of your private information. ICMEC also uses “firewalls” to restrict unauthorized access by users inside and outside our organization.

Despite our best efforts to protect and secure your information, please be aware that no transmission over the Internet and no data storage method is 100% secure.

Links to Other Websites
Our website may contain hypertext links to other sites on the Internet (external links). External links are included to refer the user to other possibly relevant resources and are provided for informational purposes only.

The appearance of an external hyperlink does not constitute an endorsement by ICMEC or its partners, nor does ICMEC exercise any editorial control over the information that may be found at an external link. ICMEC is not responsible for the privacy practices, content, quality, or accuracy of any material and information accessed through an external link. ICMEC is not responsible for any information contained on an external link, nor is it liable for any inaccurate, defamatory, offensive, or illegal materials found on other Internet websites. The user is responsible for evaluating the content, quality, and accuracy of material and information obtained through an external link.

Accurate Personal Information
If you are a donor and would like to update or review the personal information we have on file for you, please e-mail your request to information@icmec.org. Be sure to include both your old and your new personal information in your request so we can properly update our records.